1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus and, more particularly, to a communication apparatus having a facsimile function capable of connecting to a LAN.
2. Related Background Art
A communication apparatus is conventionally known which has a facsimile function capable of connecting to a LAN in addition to an existing communication line such as a public services telephone network (PSTN). A communication apparatus of this type can output communication data, received via a public services telephone network (PSTN), onto a recording paper sheet and can also store the data in a predetermined memory (to be referred to as a memory box hereinafter) from which the stored data can be extracted from a terminal on a LAN. A document received in a memory box for which a predetermined password is set is treated as a secret document. This document is extracted by using the password set for the memory box.
Unfortunately, after being extracted data once regarded as a secret document is treated as a commonly extracted received document when it arrives at a user, losing its secrecy. To solve this problem, it is possible to impose limitations so as not to allow saving of a secret document extracted by an information processing terminal on a LAN, and to allow only reading of the document. If this is the case, however, the data of a secret document cannot be saved, and this impairs the user friendliness. Also, if documents are kept stored in a receiving apparatus, a memory box becomes full.
The present invention has been made to solve this problem, and has as its object to provide a communication apparatus capable of maintaining the secrecy of data received in a memory box when forwarding the data.